Origins of the Old Order Amish

The Amish, called "The Plain People" or Old Order Amish, originated in
Switzerland about l525. They came from a division of the Mennonites or
Anabaptists (Re-baptizers). They opposed the union of church and state and
infant baptism. They baptized people only as adults at about age l8.
Adult baptism was a crime in the l6th century. Therefore, the Amish come
from an impressive list of martyrs. They were put in sacks and thrown into
rivers in Europe. There are no Amish left in Europe; The Amish were saved
from extinction by William Penn who granted a haven from religious
persecution in America. Since early colonial days the Amish have lived in
the United States preserving their distinctive culture, dress, language
and religion in peace and prosperity.

A
few years ago they were again accused of crimes -- failing to have their
children attend school with state certified teachers or failure to send
them beyond the eighth grade. Until the United States Supreme Court in the
case of Wisconsin vs. Yoder ruled in l972 that it was
unconstitutional to force Amish into high school. The decision was based
on the Constitutional legal issues of Parental Rights and Religious
Freedom. Since the Amish believe in "turning the other cheek" and do not
defend themselves, the National Committee for Amish Religious Freedom and
its attorney William B. Ball of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, defended them in
court.

It may seem strange that failing to send children to school past the
eighth grade would be a permitted or acceptable practice. But the Amish
society is itself a school. They train their young people vocationally --
how to be homemakers and farmers, carpenters, and tradesmen from very
early ages. By the time an Amish girl is twelve years old she knows how to
cook a meal for a whole crew of Amish workers, and a young man knows farm
operations by the time he is a teenager.

The Amish therefore have practically no unemployment, since their
society is a vocational school. The Amish operate one-room parochial
schools and are taught by teachers with only an eight-grade education.
However, the teachers have learned how to be teachers with on the job
training by an older and experienced Amish teacher. The Amish pupils have
been tested with standardized tests by the U.S. Office of Education, and
the pupils usually perform above the norms when compared to public schools
pupils in their communities. The students are not therefore educationally
deprived. Furthermore, it is difficult, if not impossible, for a
non-Amish teacher to teach the values of humility, quietness, and shunning
of technological things like automobiles, television, video games, movies
and fashions. Some people think the Amish are ignorant because they shun
technology, but the Amish are also making profound statements about the
environment. They do not use gasoline, electricity, commercial chemicals,
CFCs -- all of which pollute the environment.

The Amish live in nineteen states, Canada, and Central America.
However, 80 percent of the Amish live in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana.
The Old Order Amish take their name from an early Swiss Anabaptist, Jacob
Amman, who became their strict Bishop and taught them the Amish ethics --
Living non-resistant lives (They do not serve in the military, but only in
hospitals or alternate service), with brotherly love, sharing material aid
and living close to the soil and following the Bible literally. They cite
the Bible which says, "Be ye not conformed to the world" as their chief
tenet.

To this day they endure as a distinctive folk group because they have
preserved a mentality of separation from the world and the sentiments of
persecuted strangers in the land. They wear plain clothing fastened with
hooks and eyes, not buttons. Their men wear broad-brimmed black hats,
plain-cut trousers and the women and even little girls wear bonnets and
ankle length dresses. They generally oppose automobiles, electricity,
telephones and higher education beyond eighth grade.

Their congregations number only about 300. They worship in homes and
not in church buildings. They do not drive cars or ride in airplanes, but
drive horses and buggies. This keeps their communities small and
close-knit, and their children do not live all over the world. Family values
are important to them. They are slow to change and speak the German
language along with English. They drive horses and buggies for
transportation. They practice "shunning" for any of their members who
break their rules.

Although many people do not understand their simple way of life, the
Amish are maintaining a very profound position. They want to be prepared
for the world to come rather than for becoming rich or famous in this
world. They would rather maintain a close-knit family life than travel
all over. The norms and educational goals of our society which stress
product centered, high pressure, technological and secular values are
antithetical to Amish beliefs. Therefore, they practice old ways,
slowness of pace, simplicity, close-knit agrarian living. The 80,000 Old
Order Amish oppose higher education because it violates their morals,
their religious convictions and takes their children away from the simple
ways of the Amish.